Talk to the Snail

Three more shots from Thursday night’s Random! Cartoons wrap party.

Above, Nick Studio’s General Manager Mark Taylor, who went above and beyond the call of duty in supporting this production over the past two years, and Jeff DeGrandis, creator of “The Finster Finster Show” and director on both “MooBeard: The Cow Pirate” and “Thom Cat”, surround the very best network representative a production could ask for, Claudia Spinelli.

“Bradwurst” creators Jason Plapp and Angelo di Nallo.

[Read more…]

Three more shots from Thursday night’s Random! Cartoons wrap party in Hollywood.

The above shows the indefatigable Molly Maldonado, the woman in charge of managing all the shorts’ vast post-production needs, ignoring the attempts by “Solomon Fix” and “Squirly Town” creator Doug TenNapel and “Krunch & the Kid” and “Tiffany” creator Adam Henry to offer hush money, the explanation of which would require a whole other post.

Here’s “Dangerous Duck Brothers” background artist Jim Hickey with Random! executive producer and co-creator of “Dr. Dee & Bit Boy”, Larry Huber.

[Read more…]

So right before the holidays I bought this digital camera from Melissa’s dad’s camera shop. While I love it and have been taking bunches of pictures, I still don’t know how to do lots of things, like eliminating red eye (despite using the red eye flash thing). So I’m going to try to Photoshop all the shots with the red eyes before I put them all on flickr or something. (If anyone has suggestions on how to get rid of red eyes, comment away.) Anyway….

Here are three red-eyeless shots from Thursday night.

The above is Alan Goodman (Bronk & Bongo, 6 Monsters) and Bill Burnett (Dr. Froyd’s Funny Farm).

Here, looking criminally cute, is Rami Kim and Niki Yang (Two Witch Sisters, Victor the Delivery Dog).

[Read more…]

Well, we had our big Random! Cartoons wrap party last night at Hollywood Billiards. I took a ton of photos and am trying to figure out how to post them. When you see the pictures, you’ll see how every one of the couple of hundred Random! cast and crew members has red eyes. The pictures are a lot like the one above from last summer’s Dancing with the Stars (the New Zealand version) wrap party (except, of course, for the red eyes). I’d also blog the the cool poster from Hatch Show Print we handed out, but Melissa’s the one who loves to use the scanner, not me. Check back this weekend when maybe I can get it together.

So, after a quarter of a million views by unique viewers, “Adventure Time” has been pulled off Google. Maybe it was too popular. So watch it here at YouTube.

I know I always say we pack the Nick gym to the gunwales when we have one of our Random! Cartoons screenings, but tonight we really did. (A big sorry to the folks we had to turn away.) We screened half a dozen shorts, had a quick panel discussion with the filmmakers, and an even quicker Q&A. A good time was had by all. If you were there, back me up. Thanks to those who showed up.

In the picture, you can see our panel of cartoon titans. Thanks for paneling.

The boys, snips and snails, left to right: Jerry Beck; Pen Ward; Doug TenNapel.

The girls, sugar and spice, left to right: Rita Street; Melissa Wolfe; Anne Walker; Niki Yang.

Finally, a sincere thanks to ASIFA-Hollywood and Nickelodeon for being such fantastic supporters of Frederator and Random! Cartoons.

Wow. Three big hits to Hanna-Barbera in the past few months. First, Ed Benedict. Then, Joe Barbera. Now, Iwao Takamoto. Of the studio’s old-timers, these were the three guys with whom I spent the most time while working in the Animation Art department. They were three very different men, for sure.

I’m guessing that between Iwao and Ed, they must’ve designed 80% of the main Hanna-Barbera characters for thirty years.

It was around 1996, when it was obvious that Mr. Barbera and, especially, Bill Hanna were not going to make as many gallery appearances as they had been doing (an incredible source of income for the studio and for the galleries), it was suggested that Iwao begin going out on the road. At first, Warner Bros Studios Stores, the division of WB that had taken over Hanna-Barbera Animation Art, was extremely skeptical. However, it was abundantly clear with Iwao’s first appearance (I [Read more…]

Reminder: Next Wednesday night, 1/10, all ASIFA-Hollywood members are invited to swing by Nickelodeon in Burbank for a special screening of six Random! cartoons, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. A good time is guaranteed for all.